554 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1354 



Fiord. From thence to the main cache, from 

 which the homeward journey will be made. 



My Danish companion on these travels will 

 be Mr. C. F. Slott, an engineer who during 

 many years and in many countries has almost 

 exclusively devoted himself to the study of 

 tractors and their practical working. On the 

 sledge-journeys I shall be accompanied by 

 Polar Eskimos. 



The cost of the expedition is estimated at 

 110,000 Danish Kroner, part of which has 

 been guaranteed by the Danish State. The 

 remainder was raised by a committee con- 

 sisting of : 

 Mil. C. F. Wandel, former rear-admiral of 



the Eoyal Danish Navy, Chairman. 

 Mr. a. Erlandsen, shipowner. Treasurer. 

 Mr. J. Daugaard-Jensen, director of the ad- 

 ministration of the colonies in Greenland. 

 Me. V. Gluckstadt, of the Merchants' Guild, 



consul general for Italy. 

 Mr. Eugene Warming, former professor of 



the University of Copenhagen. 



The state has placed a ship at our disposal 

 in order to take the expedition and its stores 

 to Inglefield Gulf. This ship left Copenhagen 

 on July 15, 1920. 



Lauge Koch 



Copenhagen 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO CONFERENCE ON 

 RECENT ADVANCES IN PHYSICS 



With a view to stimulating interest in re- 

 search, the president and the board of gover- 

 nors of the University of Toronto have heartily 

 approved of a proposal made to them to con- 

 vene, during the present session, a conference 

 on recent advances in physics. This confer- 

 ence will be held in the physics laboratory of 

 the university between January 5 and 26, 1921. 



Dr. Ludwiik Silberstein, late professor in the 

 University of Rome, and at present mathe- 

 matical adviser to the Eastman Kodak Co., of 

 Rochester, N. T., has kindly consented to take 

 the leading part in the conference. Dr. Silber- 

 stein is a distinguislhed mathematician and 

 mathematical physicist and, during the period 

 of the war, served as expert adviser to the im- 



portant British optical firm, Messrs. Adam 

 Hilger, Ltd., of London, England. By his 

 training in Europe and by his own contribu- 

 tions to modern science, he is eminently fitted 

 to speak with authority on his chosen themes. 

 Dr. Silberstein will deliver a course of eighteen 

 lectures on the special and generalized theories 

 of relativity and gravitation and on some of 

 the recent advances in spectroscopy and theory 

 of atomic structure. In the latter courses 

 there will be presented the theories put forward 

 by Bohr and by Sommerfield on the origin of 

 radiations, and by Epstein on the Stark effect, 

 in addition to Dr. Silberstein's own investiga- 

 tions on non-'spherioal nuclei. From the na- 

 ture of the subject the treatment will be chiefly 

 from the mathematical standpoint. 



Dr. Irving Langmuir, of the research labora- 

 tory of the General Electric Co., of Schenec- 

 tady, N". Y., has also kindly consented to take 

 part in the conference on January 17, 18 and 

 19. On these days he will deliver a short 

 course of lectures on Theories of atomic struc- 

 tures, and other topics. 



Provision has also been made in the confer- 

 ence for a course of sixteen lectures on a more 

 or less popular nature. This course will be 

 given by Professor McLennan. It will deal 

 with various aspects of recent researches on 

 the structure of matter and on the origin and 

 characteristics of radiation. The dominant 

 aim will be to present as simply and as clearly 

 as possible the results of investigations which 

 have been made up to the present on various 

 phases of the subjects treated. The lectures of 

 this course should prove of interest to science 

 workers generally and to those of the public 

 who are esi)ecially interested in the jihilosoph- 

 ical aspect of science or in some of its impor- 

 tant applications. 



A course of lectures will also be given on 

 the fundamental properties of colloidal solu- 

 tions. More and more in industry is a knowl- 

 edge of colloids and their chemical properties 

 becoming essential and it is expected that these 

 lectures will prove interesting and profitable 

 to manufacturers as well as to scientific work- 

 ers. Professor E. F. Burton, both on account 

 of his investigations in this subject and from 



